Hamish MacLaren included the Yangtse River Chantey in his book of
verse, Sailor with Banjo. Charlie Ipcar of Portland, Maine is
responsible for the musical setting, and also did a nice job of making the
text more singable. I learned it from our good friend Barry Finn
(with much patience on his part).

The Yangtze River runs into the Pacific Ocean at Shanghai. Shanghai is both
the name of the great Chinese port, and a verb, meaning to be placed aboard a
ship against one's will by force, a practice common in the days of sailing
ships of the 18th and 19th centuries. Shanghai was about
as far away from the major ports of America and Britain in those days and was
not a place that sailors relished visiting. Essentially it was too far away.
But sailors, like the shanties, had to be flexible too so a consolation was the
idea of a girl in every port. How much they may have learned from these
cultures and those women…

This shanty started life in a folk opera written by Hamish McLaren and
called Sailor with Banjo. McLaren had attended the Royal Naval
College at Dartmouth at the age of twelve and after graduating served as a
gunnery officer. After a posting to a naval station in Shanghai for a while
he left the navy to follow his star as a writer. McLaren's words were adapted
and set to a mix of the tops'l shanty tunes
Tom's Gone to Hilo
and the Congo River by Charlie Ipcar of Maine. Having used shanties,
it would also work well on the pumps or for loading I'd reckon. So open yer
lung, bend yer back to the Yangtze River Shanty.

Lyrics

Ye Mariners All sing Yangtse River Chantey

My lotus lady I'll see no more,Away, boys, away-o
Since I left her on the China shore.Away, boys, lift and walk away.